3.30.15 | Design software company Configura held its spring Partner Meeting and conjoining Developer Conference in Grand Rapids, MI, earlier this month – a gathering of office furniture industry competitors Steelcase, Haworth, Teknion, KI, Inscape and others to discuss and receive confidential software updates from Configura. Configura, the quirky Swedish company we wrote about last fall after attending the company’s CET Designer User Conference in Grand Rapids, continues to push forward their product, making it more seamless, more cutting edge, and more approachable. After experiencing the entertaining, spirited CET Designer User Conference in November, we’re not surprised by Configura’s unconventional approach to its more business-oriented engagements.

3.30.15 | While some specialty design products and techniques can, in the wrong hands, toe the line of good taste, the same products placed in the right designer’s hands can elevate workplace design. Soelberg Industries, specializing in architectural wall products, certainly counts itself as one of several emerging companies growing strong followings in the interior design and interior architecture community.

3.30.15 | As spring begins to settle into 2015, our calendars are steadily filling up with work engagements and networking nights of all sorts. These events all serve as excellent warm-ups to NeoCon, the details of which are now beginning to appear in our inboxes. The American Society of Interior Designers – Illinois Chapter (ASID-IL) hosted its annual Design Summit last Thursday, March 26th at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The Design Summit, a bit like a bite-size version of the industry’s esteemed trade shows, featured one keynote speaker, four CEU seminar sessions (participants were each able to attend two), and a reception and networking party.

3.23.15 | The nature of our work, in the United States and many other countries, is shifting to a people-based work. Rather than machines, a company’s people are its primary, and oftentimes only, performing assets. So what makes or allows humans to perform at their optimal level? New research from Knoll Workplace Research and RKTL Associates explore the evolution of employee health from the corporate wellness initiatives of the 1970s to the holistic wellbeing programs organizations must now embrace as the economy continues its shift from industrial to knowledge-based.

3.23.15 | Last Wednesday Herman Miller announced its latest quarterly results, and on Thursday, CEO Brian Walker and his executive team hosted a webcast to discuss the company’s results with investors and interested stakeholders. Officeinsight Publisher Bob Beck explores what this quarterly report says about Herman Miller and its strategy and direction, and given its leadership position in the American office furniture manufacturing industry, what it says about the state of the industry.

3.23.15 | Getting rid of clutter has become a crusade. Bestselling books and lifestyle magazines chant a simple mantra: get rid of stuff, and your life will be better. And too much stuff is indeed undesirable. But amid the push to get rid of it all, it’s important to stand up for possessions. The things we put around us start a silent conversation with all who encounter them. They send all sorts of signals about how to act and ways to build relationships.